Over 500 wheat flour bags handed over to Gujarat govt to "collect" money for Dalit-Adivasi scholarship

The rally in front of the district collector's office

By A Representative
Dalit rights activists from 500 villages of Gujarat, led by Navsarjan Trust founder Martin Macwan, organized a rally from Gandhi Ashram to the Ahmedabad district collector’s office to highlight the failure of the state government to provide scholarship to nearly 70,000 Dalit and Adivasi students over the last two years.
Carried out under the banner “Vote nahi Lot” (not vote, but wheat flour), the rally handed over hundreds of wheat flour bags to the Ahmedabad district collector to be handed over to chief minister Vijay Rupani.

Martin Macwan at the rally

“We wanted to send the message that if they don’t have money to disburse Rs 2.73 crore as scholarship to 70,000 children, they could l sell these wheat flour bags to give scholarships”, Macwan said. Twelve activists handed over the wheat flour packs along with a memorandum to the district collector. The memorandum said, “It is most unfortunate that on the eve of the 72nd year of India’s Independence Day celebrations, we would have to hand over collect wheat flour from villages and hand it over to help Dalit and Adivasi students.”
The memorandum said, “In 2007, the percentage of school pass outs was 70.65%, which went down to 53.62% in 2018. In so-called backward districts the results have been even poorer. It was 37.35% in Dahod, 48.85% in Mahisagar and 49.8% in Chhotaudepur districts. These are the districts where majority of students come from the poor Adivasi background. It seems the government adopts an attitude of untouchability towards these districts by undermining government schools and promoting private schools.”